Al Saal was a well-known undertaker in Toledo, Ohio, and one of the star performers at early I.B.M. conventions.[1][2]

Saal gave his first show when he was eighteen years old and later learned shadowgraphy from Theodore Bamberg (Okito).

Dressed in a Spanish costume and wearing a turned-up mustache, he also performed card and cigarette manipulations. He was one of the first to use fluorescent paint on playing cards, combining black art with card manipulations, gaining the title of "The Man With The Lights". [3]